Pɾιɳƈҽʂʂ σϝ ƚԋҽ Dҽαԃ

ʀ.ɨ.ɖ.ɨ.ƈ.ʊ.ʟ.օ.ʊ.ֆ

The next day Holly held the bag of spelled cookies in a shaking hand, "This is a stupid idea," She muttered to herself. Love was not something to be controlled and tampered with, and she was sure Aphrodite and Eros would agree, but what other choice did she have. Mal took the cookies from her and Holly though hard about her next steps. 

She could choose not to be evil, but she shook her head. She wasn't evil. She was working toward freedom for everyone, she wasn't the bad guy. Evil was only a matter of who was telling the story. When Ben told this story would he paint her as the villain plotting against him? Or as an oppressed princess and Queen, doing her best to free people and regain what was unjustly taken from her?

She tried to expel what Ben thought from her mind. No matter what Ben saw her as, whether he saw her as evil or not she needed that wand, but a nagging in the back of her mind told her that it mattered what Ben thought. At least to her. 

Her eyes widened, the dreams. Her prophetic dreams. Demigod dreams absolutely sucked but sometimes just sometimes and they were helpful in the long run. 

"Hey Mal, Holly, love my new hair," a girl called out to them as they approached their lockers.

Mal gave them a forced smile, Holly did too but she quickly realized it wasn't as forced as she thought it was. In fact, it wasn't forced at all. "Thank you so much guy!" 

Jay rounded a corner and leaned on the Lockers beside him, "Are you feeling kind of weird about this? I mean, it's not so bad here, you know," he smiled almost dazed.

Holly was about to respond, echoing his sentiments, but Mal beat her to it, "Are you insane? Long live evil! You're mean! You're awful! You're bad news! Snap out of it!" The demigoddess frowned Jay was not evil, not by a long shot he loved them all like a big brother. He was temperamental, he was mean, but evil? Absolutely not. 

He shook his head, "Thanks, Mal. I needed that."

Mal gave him an annoyed nod. 

Hayden and Ben made their way to their lockers, Audrey tailing them. She leaned back and glared at the girls thanking Mal for their new hair styles. "Do you think they actually paid for those?" She whined about the girls getting their hair done. Hayden being the over dramatic young man he was had placed his head in his locker to avoid talking to her.

Jay was hanging over the railing flirting with some girls, Holly closed her locker and slide herself on to the floor hanging her feet under the railing and leaning her head on top of it, a bright smile on her face. "They did it to Jane's hair, too, and Fairy Godmother's not happy about it." Hayden briefly over his shoulder glancing at Mal who looked at Jay and Holly with an unreadable expression. He felt his cheeks heat up and looked away.

"What's the harm?" Ben asked. 

"It's gateway magic! Sure, it starts with the hair. Next thing you know it's the lips and the legs and the clothes and then everybody looks good and then... where will I be?" Audrey whined once more. Hayden looked at her with a twitch in his eye, she was worried about looks. Pushing other girls down to build herself up. 

Ben sighed, "Listen, Audrey-"

She cut him off, "I will see you at the game after my dress-fitting for the coronation, okay?" she asked.

"Okay."

"Bye, Bennyboo," She kissed his cheek. "Bye Hady." 

Hayden sighed and called after her, "I asked you to stop calling me that." He grumbled under his breath, "Especially since there's a Hadie in the middle school now."

"Bye," Ben called sounding tired.

"Why are you even with her," Hayden asked, "I mean she's my sister and I love her but she's controlling and its clearly eating at you. Plus, you clearly like Holly."